The latest eMarketer forecast suggests that adults in the U.S. will interact with media over 12 hours per day this year, due to increases in digital usage and media multitasking. However, while 56 percent of Americans now have the ability to view online video via their TV sets, most are still watching traditional TV the majority of the time. According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), there has been a 20 percent jump since 2015 in the number of consumers who can access Internet video directly through their TV or a device like Chromecast, but 39 percent of the time people are watching broadcast TV compared to 24 percent of the time when they are streaming content.

The eMarketer calculations include the overlap of simultaneous usage that occurs during media multitasking. If an individual watches an hour of television while surfing the Web for the same hour via a smartphone, for example, then it is counted as two hours of media consumption.

According to eMarketer, “nonvoice time spent per day by smartphone users will have risen from 2 hours 18 minutes in 2014 to 2 hours 42 minutes by 2019. The proliferation of apps is clearly a factor in this increase.” The New York-based researcher “estimates that in-app smartphone time will have increased by 42 minutes per day between 2014 and 2019.”

In regards to video trends, IAB notes the percentage of time that U.S. consumers are streaming content from services such as Amazon, Hulu or Netflix is increasing.

“About half (46 percent) of people with streaming-enabled TVs watch streaming video daily, up from 32 percent in 2015,” reports Recode. “Seventy-nine percent watch TV shows (either currently airing, or shows that have aired in the past), whereas a close 70 percent watch subscription originals like Netflix’s ‘Stranger Things’ or Hulu’s ‘Handmaid’s Tale.’”

The IAB survey also addressed trends in consumer opinions regarding advertising. TechCrunch points out the report concluded that “50 percent of streaming TV owners [said] they’d rather watch commercials than pay for ad-free subscriptions, and 44 percent [said] commercials in digital video are less intrusive than they are on linear TV.”

Last month, comScore reported that “in December 2016 … more than 49 million homes — 53 percent of U.S. Wi-Fi connected homes — accessed at least one OTT service,” with Netflix “the clear leader,” followed by YouTube, Amazon and Hulu.

The Entertainment Technology Center at the University of Southern California (ETC@USC) is a think tank and research center that brings together senior executives, innovators, thought leaders, and catalysts from the entertainment, consumer electronics, technology, and services industries along with the academic resources of the University of Southern California to explore and to act upon topics and issues related to the creation, distribution, and consumption of entertainment content. As an organization within the USC School of Cinematic Arts, ETC helps drive collaborative projects among its member companies and engages with next generation consumers to understand the impact of emerging technology on all aspects of the entertainment industry, especially technology development and implementation, the creative process, business models, and future trends. ETC acts as a convener and accelerator for entertainment technology and commerce through: Research, Publications, Events, Collaborative Projects and Shared Exploratory Labs and Demonstrations.